The Chilean Navy said in a statement (in Spanish) that the rafts had been about 1,000 miles (1,600km) west of the city of Puerto Montt.

The expedition put out a distress signal on Wednesday, asking for help.

"We realize that reaching South America will take too long and we prefer to evacuate to ensure safety for all," expedition leader Torgeir Higraff said in a statement.

He blamed the El Nino weather phenomenon for creating "atypical" weather patterns, adding that in "a normal year, we would have reached South America by now. Instead, we are still 900 nautical miles from land and the weather forecasts are not promising".

Some of the crew on board were carrying out research on climate change, pollution from microplastics and the impact of the El Nino weather effect.

The original 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition saw a mainly Norwegian team travel across the Pacific on a raft.

That was led by the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl, considered one of the great adventurers of the 20th Century.

The expedition he led proved that it would have been possible to travel by raft from Peru to Polynesia, contrary to the received wisdom at the time.